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A non-profit publication of the Office of the University Relations of Virginia Tech,
including The Conductor, a special section of the Spectrum printed 4 times a year

Using Implementation Techniques

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 16 - January 19, 1995

(Editor's note: This is the third of a series of articles
designed to inform the university community about a major
initiative that is an integral part of Virginia Tech's
restructuring commitment and is currently under way within the
university. Follow-up articles will focus on different aspects of
Project ENABLE and provide progress reports as the project is
implemented.)

The second article in this series described expectations of
Project ENABLE, the administrative systems initiative, and
discussed the impact it will have on the university community.
The article emphasized that change, involvement, and improvement
will be the order of the day during implementation of the
project. Of these, change will perhaps have the greatest
individual impact. All of us can-in fact, should-expect to see
dramatic change in the nature and efficiency of Virginia Tech's
work processes. Of course, being a part of any changing
environment is always difficult and stressful. However, the
successful completion of Project ENABLE will enable all of us to
do a better job and ultimately result in a less stressful and
more satisfying work environment.

With expectations so high, it is normal to wonder about how
all of this is going to be achieved. The fundamental strategies
for achieving these expectations are: acquiring state-of-the-art
application software, implementing a client-server
distributed-computing architecture, and the selective redesign of
our fundamental administrative business processes.

Future articles will discuss the state-of-the-art
application software. The remainder of this article is dedicated
to discussing the concepts of client-server computing and
business process analysis and redesign.

THE CLIENT SERVER CONCEPT
Primarily, client-server computing consists of two programs
interacting with each other in a cooperative processing
environment. The client program initiates work by issuing a
request to the server program. Cooperative processing describes
the computing environment within which multiple components of a
software application interact and execute concurrently on
multiple platforms. This type of distributed process takes
advantage of the operating characteristics of the multiple
platforms involved, including Virginia Tech's network
infrastructure, rich client base and existing workstations. The
user perceives administrative applications running within a
client-server environment as an integrated application.

The production tools available in a distributed computing
environment will empower Virginia Tech employees, enabling them
to access university information in a quick, transparent manner.
Informational requests and reporting needs that normally take
days will take only minutes. The set of robust, flexible
information access tools provided within a client-server
computing environment will benefit the university in a number of
ways.

These powerful end-user tools allow the university to become
more competitive in recruitment, to greatly enhance
administrative services to the student, to drastically reduce
time required by the administrative decision support process, and
increase staff productivity.

Client-server computing also benefits Virginia Tech's
application developers. However, it will require a radical change
in mindset. Current mainframe-based, Cobol-oriented development
staffs will need to acquire new skills and experience. Some of
these skills include developing graphical user interfaces and
rules-based applications, learning advanced programming
languages, and learning advanced-database technology. This effort
will allow the university to realize the benefits of rapid
application development and software reusability.

Finally, client-server technology supports redesign of the
university's administrative business processes. Rapidly deployed
teams consisting of end-users empowered by client-server
computing will streamline our administrative processes and
enhance the service facet of these processes.

THE CONCEPT OF BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS AND REDESIGN
While client-server strategies tend to be somewhat esoteric
and complex, business process analysis and redesign is simple. It
involves thoroughly examining an organization's business
processes with an experienced and objective eye. The goal of this
examination is to identify all facets of the process that do not
add value and propose new approaches and tools that will make the
process more effective. Using information and ideas generated by
the process analysis, it is possible to create a redesigned
process that is easier and less costly to perform and, because of
its increased effectiveness, is able to deliver improved services
to the organization's customers.

The key to successful business process analysis and redesign
is the use of experienced and objective people to accomplish the
redesign. University staff members currently responsible for
executing administrative processes are obviously the most
experienced resources regarding details and needs of processes.
The contribution of these front-line people is absolutely
essential. However, because of their direct involvement with only
a small part of the total processes, these people seldom have the
overall knowledge necessary to develop a comprehensive process
redesign. This is the reason for using cross-functional and
multi-disciplinary "teams" to analyze and redesign business
processes. The idea is to form a team of resources-with each
member bringing special knowledge and/or skills-that will have
the range of experience and objectivity to develop the best
redesigned process possible.

Effectively redesigned business processes are frequently
very different from the processes they replace. Typically, the
streamlined processes will be characterized by fewer steps, less
effort and equipment, and decreased need for paper transactions.
Unfortunately, in the interim, old processes must be applied
while new ones are developed.

For Virginia Tech, the combination of redesigned business
processes supported by client-server computing systems can be
incorporated into the state-of-the-art applications software.
This effort will provide many opportunities for administrative
departments to reduce costs, improve the work environment for
their employees, and provide better service to their customers.

The next installment in this series of articles will begin
to describe the current status of Project ENABLE and will discuss
the status of the project's applications software.

Additional information and news about Project ENABLE is
currently available electronically by accessing, through MOSAIC,
the Virginia Tech Home Page. To do so, under the file menu, open
URL (http://www.vt.edu). The VT Home Page will come up. Select
"University Initiatives," then select "Project ENABLE: the
Administrative Systems Initiative." This will bring you to the
Project Enable Home Page.